Monkeys are taking over village roofs across Goa, from Pernem to Canacona. According to Rama Velip, environmentalist and anti-mining activist, this is just one of the ways his village of Colomb has changed over the last decade. Most of the paddy fields and coconut plantations were damaged by mining run-off. Water availability went down; with heavy pollution of the river and wells running dry, the winter paddy cultivation was stopped. Increasingly erratic and unseasonal weather changes routinely cause crop failures. On top of all this are unwanted visitors: hoards of monkeys, along with leopards, wild boar, and bison. In fact, with bison attacks becoming common in Bicholim, Sattari and Sanguem, some villages have demanded a drastic change in the classification of Goa’s state animal from ‘protected’ to ‘vermin’, which would allow them to be killed.
But is killing wildlife a solution? All these problems are the direct result of the destruction of Goa’s forests, the natural habitat of these animals, the source of Goa’s once-abundant water, and the regulator of our climate. And this is a destruction caused purely by human greed – of the mining companies and the real estate developers, and their political backers who claim the destruction is development. Yes, common people are also involved in these destructive enterprises, but as employees, and in a situation where there are few decent jobs in the state.
Colomb is a village in Goa’s now-silent mining belt, which saw some of the first public protests by local communities against rampant illegal mining. The river looks slightly clearer these days, says Velip; it will take a lot of time and patience for nature to fully recover. But who’s going to allow that? Almost every member of Goa’s legislature, led by the ailing Chief Minister, has expressed support for an immediate restart of mining in Goa, via a continuation of the same leases declared illegal by the court. Nobody among Goa’s politicians is bothered to ask how on earth can those proved to have willfully robbed the exchequer and destroyed the environment be invited to continue their crimes. Everybody acts as if there is no option, given the loss of livelihood of the ‘mining dependents’. Everybody is silent on the simple fact that this loss can – and must – be compensated for by making the mining companies pay for their crimes.
The Goa Foundation filed a petition in 2018 to recover about Rs 21,000 crore from just Vedanta (the biggest miner), as part of a total estimated Rs 65,000 crore worth of illegally-extracted ore during 2007-2012. The Goa government itself had issued show-cause notices to the lease-holders demanding around Rs 3000 crore for causing loss to the state, but it does not seem really serious about recovering this money. Following the Goa Foundation petition, the courts ordered the government to decide on the recovery of dues from Vedanta within eight weeks. But the government, which claims financial difficulties because of the closure of mining, has asked the court for more time – another eight weeks – to even ask for the money!
It is, of course, unsurprising that – as the courts themselves noted – the Goa government appears to represent the mining companies rather than the people. According to ‘Vedanta’s Billions: Regulatory failure, environment and human rights’, by Samarendra Das (published by Foil Vedanta, 2018), a report of the environmental, social, and financial impact of Vedanta’s activities all over the world, the company has flourished by patronising anybody and everybody in power. The report reveals a pattern of illegality, environmental havoc, and all kinds of human rights abuses by Vedanta or its subsidiaries in Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Chattisgarh, Rajasthan, Punjab, and also Zambia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan, besides Goa. The money power of the company can be seen in the way governments back it, even with cold-blooded violence, as seen in May last year outside Vedanta’s Sterlite Copper plant at Thoothukudi, TN, where 13 people were killed in police firing on protesters demanding the plant’s closure for criminal environmental pollution and endangering of public health. It is notable that this is the same Sterlite plant which had tried to set up in Goa, but was thwarted by public protests. Goa truly owes a lot to its environment warriors!
What is the way forward? Rama Velip believes that mining should be done the way his forefathers did it: lightly, with minimal extraction and destruction, and also only for the benefit of local communities. The option championed by our politicos, of continuing with the corporate crooks, is obviously not going to achieve this. But what about a State mining corporation? This too hardly makes sense, given how our current political establishment is busy selling Goa’s natural resources downriver, via the coal hub, nationalised waterways, Mopa airport, increased village settlement zones, needless widening of roads, and now the loosening of coastal protection. There is thus only one sensible option, which is to leave things to the local communities, as envisaged in the Panchayats (Extended to Scheduled Areas) Act (PESA) of 1996. This would mean encouraging the growth of local enterprises, like the Sadhana village co-operative of Caurem-Pirna, Quepem, set up in the face of bitter opposition by the mining companies and their political minions.
It is true that such enterprises will not be easy to start or sustain, given opposition from without, and also – since many Goan villages are divided by caste and class – from within. Even so, local communities who have worked on the land and engaged with natural resources in a sustainable way are Goa’s best hope for development. Just as killing wildlife is not a solution, neither is the return of the mining companies. Both will further degrade the environment, and our future with it. The people of Goa need long-term, equitable, and sustainable development, and we will have to work this out ourselves.
(Amita Kanekar is an architectural Historian and Novelist)
